I, Yuhaka, am hungry!

Well... in the world of Monster Hunter, the average height of hunters is over 180cm. Female hunters are slightly shorter. Milia, for example, is only a pitiful 148cm tall, which can be considered a short hunter.

"Anyway, I'm still developing; I'm just growing a little slowly!"

Hearing Milia's words, Weiss looked at her with a sympathetic expression. It was truly sad that she was still developing at 18... However, more than that, Weiss was interested in how well Milia was doing with these things.

"By the way! Milia, how's your research on monster ecology coming along?"

Upon hearing Weiss talk about a topic she liked, Milia, who had been sulking, immediately looked at Weiss with a happy expression and said:

"Hmm! Quite a few monster ecology reports have been written! But the only troublesome thing is that most of the large monsters are too aggressive, making it difficult to find a stable way to observe their ecological status."

Weiss nodded in agreement. Most large monsters are extremely aggressive, and even herbivorous large monsters are not to be trifled with.

"Compared to those, look at these!"

Milia took out a sketchbook from the large pouch on her back and showed it to Weiss. Weiss took the sketchbook from Milia and opened it. Looking at the lifelike monster sketches in Milia's sketchbook, Weiss exclaimed "Wow!"

"It's still the same enviable art of painting as before~"

Milia's sketchbooks are filled with sketches of all sorts of plants and animals, and at the same time, they also contain information about those plants and animals.

"Oh, the information is so detailed. It's a shame there aren't any pictures or information about large monsters."

Weiss handed the sketchbook back to Milia and said this. Milia stuffed the sketchbook back into her pouch and said to Weiss:

"Drawing large monsters isn't so easy, but I'll give it a try."

Weiss, with his hands supporting his chin and a longing expression on his face, looked at Milia and said:

"Being a hunter is great! You get to go out and see the world every day, try delicious food from other places, it's so enviable!"

Milia looked at Weiss with a speechless expression and said:

"Isn't the salary and benefits for your Hunter Guild's mascot pretty good? It includes food and accommodation, plus two days off a week."

Hearing Milia's words, Weiss looked at Milia with a sullen expression and said:

"I'm not going anywhere during my two-day holiday. The only way to visit some fun places in two days is by airship, but there's simply not enough time to do anything..."

Milia's lips twitched as she looked at Weiss with a speechless expression and said:

"Is that so... It seems you guys are working quite hard, but Weiss, if you keep chatting like this, your friend behind you might not agree."

Upon hearing Milia's words, Weiss turned around and saw his mascot senior looking at him with a smile. Weiss knew he was doomed from that kind smile.

………………

"Well……"

Milia stretched lazily at the entrance of the Hunter's Guild. She didn't care what would happen to her friend Weiss next. It was Weiss's fault for mocking her height beforehand. Since Weiss dared to touch her sore spot, she would let her taste the terror of her senior's teachings!

Thinking this, Milia smiled smugly and immediately felt much better. Then, as Milia walked into a small alley to go home and rest, she accidentally stepped on a slippery fruit peel and fell down, just like in anime.

"Whoaaaaaah! What the hell is this?!"

Milia slipped on a piece of fruit peel and lost her balance, sliding forward like an ice skater.

"Eh!!?"

Just as Milia, the hunter, was preparing to avoid falling, a figure wearing a comical-faced feline headgear, shorter than herself, appeared around the corner in front of her. Seeing someone in front of her, Milia quickly shouted:

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

Seemingly hearing Milia's words, the figure wearing the comical smiling cat headgear looked in her direction, but the other party showed no intention of moving away.

Milia immediately realized she was doomed, that she was about to crash...

Bang! With a loud crash, Milia and the figure wearing the Elf cat headgear rolled together and slammed into the wall.

………………

"huh huh huh huh--"

Yuhaka sniffed his little nose, searching for a pleasant scent. Zelus, standing nearby, looked at Yuhaka in [Auto-pathfinding] mode with a speechless expression and said:

"This little idiot... you're so easily seduced by the smell of grilled meat alone! How can you be so easy to seduce?!"

"Hmph—hmph?"

Yuhaka sniffed the air and suddenly stopped. The delicious smell he had just caught had vanished, leaving him puzzled. He looked around, seeing nothing of interest, then sighed, looking disappointed, and said:

"The delicious taste has disappeared..."

Zelus, who was standing to the side, scratched her head in a bit of distress and said to Yuhaka in a comforting tone:

"Alright, hurry back to Rorota and the others. They'll buy you some good food later."

"Is it delicious?!"

Upon hearing Zelus's words, the previously dejected Yuhaka perked up and wagged his big tail excitedly. Then, Yuhaka retraced his original route back.

Then, as Yuhaka rounded a corner, he saw a girl rushing towards him.

Chapter 14 [The Scholars' Hunters]

In a small alley, two short figures lay tangled together on the ground.

"Ouch! That hurts! Are you alright?!"

Milia, who got up first, touched her head where she had just bumped into the wall, then sat up and looked at Yuhaka lying on the ground, saying this. Yuhaka slowly got up and shook her head. Because of the fall, the Elu cat headgear on Yuhaka's head had fallen off.

"Eh?"

Milia was momentarily stunned by the figure beneath the cat headgear. What she saw was a young girl with short black hair and cat ears looking at her with a bewildered expression.

"·w·meow?"

"…………Eh?"

The human and the (primitive) insect stared at each other like that.

........................

My name is Milia, and I am an HR2 hunter.

18 years old, height [148cm! (Important!)], female, no boyfriend.

My ideal is to become a "Scribe Hunter," and I dream of becoming a real "Scribe Hunter."

(Just to clarify, I'm not entirely sure what the Scryers' Team in Monster Hunter World actually does, since there's very little information about them online. So, the Scryers' Team I know does research similar to the Scryers' Team in Monster Hunter, which sounds about the same as the one in Monster Hunter. I hope you don't mind.)

Incidentally, the so-called Scribe Hunter is a combination of the Scribe and Hunter professions, which is a very rare and special profession. Scribe Hunters usually work together to handle the work of the Scribes and Hunters, on the one hand processing and recording environmental and ecological research reports on monsters and plants, and on the other hand dealing with or driving away species that may cause damage to the local ecological environment.

This job is also not easy. First, one must have sufficient knowledge, and second, one must have sufficient combat skills. A balance must be struck between the two to make one a hunter in the Scribes' Guild.

Of course, this profession requires an exam to level up, just like exams on Earth. The examiners at the Ecological Research Institute will issue exam papers for the hunters of the Scribe Team to complete. As long as the specified score is achieved, the hunters can level up. Of course, candidates can also choose the exam questions to be used as their exam content.

For hunters, it's quite simple: as long as they complete designated hunting quests, they can increase their hunter level.

Once both are at the same level, the Scrivener's Hunter can level up.

However, our future Scribe Hunters are currently worried about their wallets...

At Milia's house, Milia looked at her empty wallet with a pained expression, then glanced at Yuhaka, who was eating heartily. It seemed that the money she had earned from doing simple gathering tasks recently was all gone. She had planned to use the money to buy travel expenses to the Ecological Research Institute, but it all ended up in the belly of the little guy in front of her.

"Seriously, what kind of creature is this little guy...? A completely new beastman race?"

Milia watched as Yuhaka devoured a chicken leg, then popped a skewer of grilled meat into his mouth with a loud gulp, leaving only a clean bamboo skewer on the plate. Milia's eyes twitched as she watched the food disappear one by one on the table, then she glanced at Yuhaka's flat little belly.

"Where did all this food go...?"

As she spoke, Milia reached out her little hand and touched Yuhaka's tummy. Yuhaka, who was eating, looked at Milia with a puzzled expression. Yuhaka didn't understand why the creature in front of him would touch his tummy, but considering the food on the table, Yuhaka let Milia touch his tummy.

After touching Yuhaka's tummy, Milia snapped out of her reverie and realized she had drifted back into biological research mode. She quickly shook her head vigorously, patted her cheeks, and said:

"Milia-chan! Snap out of it! Now is not the time for research!"

After regaining her senses, Milia coughed, then patted Yuhaka's head and looked at Yuhaka with a smile like a strange aunt, saying:

"Hmm, little one, what's your name? (By the way, this little guy's hair is so soft and smooth...)"

Hearing Milia's question, Yuhaka looked up at Milia with a puzzled expression and said in a childish voice:

"Youyou~"

Upon hearing the name Yuhaka, Milia paused for a moment. "Yuhaka... why does this name sound like something from the Palico world?"

However, Milia decided to put that issue aside for now and figure out Youyou's situation first. She wondered if Youyou's parents were anxiously looking for her outside.

"So what do Youyou's parents do? (By the way, those little ears are so cute, I want to rub them! I want to bite them!)"

Hearing Milia's words, Yuhaka, who had no parents, looked at Milia with a puzzled expression and said:

"Ba ba? Mom? What's that? Is it tasty?"

After saying that, Yuhaka shook her head to shake off Milia's hand. After all, when Milia touched her ear just now, Yuhaka felt a tingling sensation down her spine. Although it felt very comfortable and she wanted to make a sound, Yuhaka wanted to eat now. If it continued, it would interfere with her eating. She would let this short human touch her ear after she finished eating.

Milia's lips twitched as she looked at Yuhaka and said:

"Uh...it's not something you can eat! It's something like parents!"

Upon hearing that it wasn't something to eat, Yuhaka shook his head in disappointment and said:

"No……"

Compared to Yuhaka, who was eating without a care in the world, Milia's hand suddenly stiffened, and she felt a pang of guilt as she thought:

[Did this child also lose his parents like me...?] (Zelus: You're overthinking it. This child was born an orphan.)

Then, with a slightly awkward, wry smile on her face, Milia said:

"Uh... I see... then Yu-Yu-chan, eat slowly..."

"Hmm~"

After saying that, Yuhaka began to struggle with the food on the table.

................

"Tsk tsk tsk..."

Zelus sighed as she watched the two people speaking on different wavelengths. She didn't bother to explain Milia's misunderstanding, since the misunderstanding wouldn't do any harm to Yuhaka.

As for Rorota and the others, Zelus has already told them not to worry, which allows Rorota and the others to focus on purchasing supplies and prevents Yuhaka from distracting them.

Now that there's a sucker willing to take care of Yuhaka, Zelus can finally relax and watch some new anime.